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2026-04-30T11:32:04Z

JDíaz:

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2026-04-30T11:30:52Z

JDíaz:

2026-04-26T21:02:10Z

JDíaz: JDíaz moved page Wachowski Sisters' "Matrix"" to Draft:The Matrix without leaving a redirect

''The Matrix'' is a franchise of dystopian fiction that consists of four movies directed by the sisters '''Lana and Lilly Wachowski''', starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-An Moss and Laurence Fishburne. With the first movie of the same name (The Matrix, 1999) winning several awards including multiple Oscars and grossing over 445 million USD at the box office. The franchise consists of four movies with the fourth one coming out in December 2021.1

==The Plot==
The world building portrays a dystopian world in 2199 after the takeover of Artificial Intelligence. After a war between humanity and AI, the atmosphere darkened, whereby there is no more energy from the sun. Therefore leading the machines to grow humans in cocoon-shaped pods in cultivation fields, for the AI’s energy regeneration. Therefore using humans as living batteries. The Humans conscious is living in a pre dystopian artificial world in 1999 - The Matrix. The few humans managing to break free from the Matrix are able to connect to the Matrix via computer plug. Once they die in the Matrix, they die in reality as well. The last natural human civilization, Zion, is being controlled by a central computer. It was built by 23 people using the so called „The One’s“ powers. The one had the ability to reality-warp the matrix, therefore bending the physics of the Matrix and freely manipulate the simulated reality. The One was born in the Matrix and freed the first people teaching them the truth. Morpheus, one of the leaders of the awakened, breaks hacker Neo free, thinking he’s the next ‚The One’. The so called Oracle is an independent program living in the Matrix. When Neo goes to question the Oracle, where he is told that he is not the one. However Neo later falls in love with Trinity, who was told that who she would love would be the one. Therefore becoming the next ‚The One’. After several expeditions into the Matrix the first movies final fight pursues between Neo and agents (Agent Smith) where Neo is able to survive and beat the agents using the Ones powers.1

==The Matrix==
The Matrix is a virtually created artificial computer reality made by AI. While in the external world the year is 2199, the Matrix depicts a world in the year 1999. While the real world is described as the "desert of the real" by Morpheus, he describes the Matrix as existing "now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation […]". A "computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being". The people within the Matrix aren't aware, that they are not living in the real world. They believe the artificial world to be reality.
The Matrix is a prison for the mind. It's a system.1

===Is the Matrix reality?===
As Morpheus suggests: „it's all a lie - an artificial world created by the machines“, the Matrix is not reality in the sense of it not being the real external world. Though it is perceived as the real world by the people in the Matrix. Proposing the question of whether what we perceive as real can be considered reality. As everyones perception may be altered. Leading to the determining factor of answering this question to be the question of what is reality.1

===The Agents===
The Agents in the matrix are sentient security programs, guardians protecting the Matrix from any threat to the false reality. The agents being computer programs can theoretically takeover any human in the Matrix’s body by loading their program. Therefore anyone in the Matrix can be seen as a possible enemy. No one of the freed has ever beaten nor survived an encounter with an agent prior to Neo.1

====Agent Smith====
One of most prevalent, most exposed agents is Agent Smith. After losing the fight against Neo Agent Smith refused to be deleted as a program and no longer followed the rules of the Matrix and thus became an enemy of the matrix.
He arguably shows aspects of possibly interpretable human behavior. As he is annoyed with being in the Matrix and as he shares his thoughts on humans, comparing humanity to a virus and the Matrix to a zoo. Arguably showing emotions as he displays disgust for humans, therefore humanizing himself. Seemingly making the AI not seem better but instead have human qualities. Also showing conflicts between the programs like humans would have.1

==Utopia and Dystopia==

===Utopia===
A utopia (Greek: without place) paints the picture of a perfect society, which is mostly in the future. “Thomas More (Sir Thomas More) described the ideal state of such a society in the eponymous novel " Utopia "(1516). In Utopia, the common good is paramount. The inhabitants of the imaginary country despise cruelty to humans and animals, there are few but clear laws, doctors are well trained and hospitals are properly equipped. The ultimate goal is people's happiness. The satirical work of the English state theorist not only describes a hoped-for state of society, but above all criticizes the social conditions that existed in England at the time. "2 The concept of an ideal state goes back to Plato. Plato’s ideal city, Magnesia, for example, has the basic political structure and laws of an ideal city3.Moore had the idea of a state in which everyone has the same right to everything and there is no private property. "In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full no private man can want anything"4. This idea came true in 1917 with the establishment of the first communist state under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. But already under his successor Josef W. Stalin the Soviet Union turned into a dictatorship.2

====The first Matrix as argument for a Utopia====
When agent Smith tells Morpheus about the first ever Matrix he tells him that it was designed to be „a perfect human world where none suffered [and] where everyone was happy“. That it was a disaster and „no one would accept the program and entire crops were lost“. While others thought that they lacked the programming language agent Smith believes that „human beings define their reality through misery and suffering“.
Implying that humans can’t ever be happy or satisfied even though living in what could possibly be considered a Utopia. This arises the question whether humanity could even survive in a perfect reality. Whether a Utopia would even be accepted. This contrast between a Utopia not being accepted by humanity and a dystopia being the actual reality, highlights humans capability of both good and evil. Arguably representative for a middle ground, the Matrix, for J.J. Rosseau and Thomas Hobbes opposite image of man applied to the external world.
Though it can be argued that in order fo reality to be there has to be negatives whether these are necessary qualities for reality may be argued.1

===Dystopia===
A dystopia is the opposite of a utopia. According to Duden, dystopia is a “fictional story or the like that will play in the future. with a negative outcome."5 “The terms are derived from the Greek word topos for“ place ”and ou for“ not ”and dys for“ bad ”. A dystopia or anti-utopia is an imaginary futuristic world in which an oppressive regime, a powerful technology or a corrupt large corporation is destroying people's lives ”6 Distopias usually begin with the utopia of a perfect society. This perfect society turns into a worst case scenario in the course of the story. Most of the time, current political, social or technological developments are processed in narratives and show a negative version of the future. The aim is to make people think and reflect on current developments. 6
"Dystopia, Utopia’s doppelganger, speaks directly to the crisis in belief, for dystopias conjure up a world in which no one wants to believe."4

====Dystopia in the Matrix====
Matrix represents a very extreme development with fatal consequences in the development of AI. The earth as a livable planet is no longer available in the form it used to be. The people as self-determined individuals have degenerated into purely an energy supplier. The mind or spirit of man only lives in a virtual world and is not aware of it. People's perception is limited to what the Matrix tells them to do. Biological perception (seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling and hearing) is switched off. There is no longer any truth or reality - as we understand it - because everything takes place in a virtual space. Everything we know, like and all social contacts are therefore only the result of programming and do not exist. A society, knowledge and everything that doesn't exist.
The Matrix thus creates a frightening scenario where the question arises whether we are not already living in a matrix but cannot recognize it. Do we humans exist in the form we know, or are we trapped in the programming of a supercomputer? Deja vu experiences are defects in the Matrix.
It is interesting to compare it to the book by Hervé Le Tellier "The Anomaly", where, among other things, the question is raised as to whether we are programming. Matrix doesn't go that far. Here the consciousness of the human lives in a program, the human himself is real.

====The Transparent Society====
In the dystopia of the Transparent Society, surveillance and control are in the center. The people have fallen victim of an almighty system.
Totalitarian states demanding absolute control, social contact is controlled and there is a lack of privacy. In addition in 'Matrix' environment and perception are controlled as well. One goal of the transparent society is to have a perfect social assignment of people to their functions, so that they can lead a full life. Therefore not giving rise to a desire for change. In the case of trouble, the person can be taken out easily, as through the surveillance theres little to no way of avoiding autority.
David Brin describes a transparent society in his book of the same name. He "argues an interesting and controversial case about the nature of privacy and accountability in an era of widespread surveillance technologies."7
One of the most famous examples of this dystopia is George Orwells "1984", where "Big Brother" is watching everything.
=====Philosophical Support=====
* Claude Shannon
* Jean-J. Rosseau
* J. Bentham - "Panopticon"
* G. Orwell
* David Brin
=====Other Examples of the Transparent Society as Dystopia=====
* "1984" - George Orwell
* "Brazil" (1985) - Terry Gilliam (dystopic movie with grotesque elements)
* "The Transparent Society" - David Brin

==Philosophical Views==
===Rene Descartes ===
„The central motif in “The Matrix” is the question: What is truth? Can we trust our perception? Is human knowledge subject to deception? Is our environment including our body just an illusion? What can i know? The French philosopher René Descartes, an important pioneer of the Enlightenment, pursued these questions in his epistemology in the middle of the 17th century. According to Descartes, everything that we perceive and accept as truth can also be questioned. After all, these could also be hallucinations. Everything that happens ultimately happens in the brain. But according to Descartes, one truth remains: we may be exposed to hallucinations, but we are also able to ponder them. That we think presupposes the existence of our ego. As soon as we think we can be sure of at least one thing: our own existence. The quintessence is in Descartes' famous sentence: Cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am.“8
Descartes Method of doubt when applied within the Matrix makes one question whether „I am“. As though one is thinking, one arguably is not existing. Arising the question of whether one can really think in the Matrix or whether one is existing within the Matrix.

===Platos allegory of the cave===
In [[Plato's Allegory of the cave]] people are chained in a cave and see the world as a shadow cast on the wall by a fire. If a prisoner were to be untied and mounted, he would see the objects that he had seen so far in the shadows in reality. He would be confused, blinded by the fire and would initially perceive the things he sees as less real. After a while he would recognize this as true but return to what he knew as it’s more comforting. When compared to The Matrix, presenting the Matrix as the shadows, a clear connection can be drawn.
„As with the ascent from Plato's cave, Neo's confrontation with reality is initially painful. But he consciously decides in favor of the real world and against a life in the matrix. He does not want to be a slave and does not want to be controlled and exploited by machines. He wants to shape his life in freedom and according to his own ideas. But Neo realizes that most people - similar to Plato's cave dwellers - are not ready for the truth and do not want to separate from the matrix. It is more beneficial for them to live in the illusion. For example, the resistance fighter Cypher is tired of the harsh reality and ready to betray his friends to Agent Smith in order to be reintegrated into the matrix.“ 8
It is mirrored in Neo’s despair when finding out about the real world and the continuously painful way of piloting through it. Proposing the question whether it would be better to stay in the Matrix. As Morpheus asks Neo the „Red Pill, Blue Pill“ question, it is arguably representative of wether a cave dweller should go up to find reality or stay in his perceived world. With Cypher even saying he regrets not taking the blue pill showing a case where reality was too much to bear.
Morpheus gave them the choice of whether they want to know the truth or stay oblivious and stay in the matrix, going back to their old lives.1

==Could the Matrix become reality?==

===Nick Bostrom’s Simulation Hypothesis===
In Bostrom’s simulation hypothesis he handles the possibility of us living in a simulation. He describes a „posthuman“ civilization as one that has the computer power and the knowledge to simulate conscious, self-replicating beings with a high level of detail. Bostrom therefore displays three possibilities of what would happen to technically non "posthuman" civilizations:
# Human civilization is likely to go extinct before developing the technological capacity to create simulated realities, prior to reaching a "posthuman" level.
# The proportion of “posthuman” civilizations being interested in simulating their own evolutionary histories or variations of it is likely to be close to zero.
# We are most likely living in a computer simulation.
Therefore if (1) were to happen human civilizations almost certainly will not reach a „posthuman“ level at our level of technological development. If (2) were to become true, there would be a high level of convergence among the technologically advanced civilizations. And if (3) were true, then we would almost certainly be living in a simulation, and most of us are living in a simulation. According to Bostrom the three possibilities have a similar probability. 9

===Do we live in a simulation?===
A computer simulation is „a program that is run on a computer and that uses step-by-step methods to explore the approximate behavior of a mathematical model. Usually this is a model of a real-world system“10.
So how likely are we to live in a simulation?
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk any sufficiently advanced civilization could create a simulation similar to our own existence. The strongest argument being that compared to 40 years ago technological advances have been so fast and we now have 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously. Therefore even if the speed at which technology advances gets cut down by a lot, in thousands of years a civilization would nevertheless be capable of creating simulations. With VirtualReality and augmented reality becoming indistinguishable from reality. Therefore the odds of that we are living in base reality are one in billions. Either a civilization will be able to create a simulation or cease to exist.11

==References==
Disclaimer: All quotes without reference are quotes from the first Matrix movie 1
#1 The Wachowskis: "The Matrix" (1999), movie.
#2 Alva Gehrmann: "Was ist eine Utopie? Traum, Wunsch, Hoffnung", (01.02.2004), in (https://www.fluter.de/was-ist-eine-utopie).
#3Bobonich, Chris and Katherine Meadows, "Plato on utopia", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/plato-utopia/>.
#4Thomas Morus, Stephen Duncombe: „open|Utopia Edited and with an Introduction by Stephen Duncombe“(2012),after "Utopia"(1516), Minor Compositions, ISBN 978–1–57027–245–5, in (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLTHfKdS9G-R3h0eWJaSTRxWVk/view?resourcekey=0-MpsQs7g4EHWzcK9GRarO7A).
#5Duden: "Dystopie", in DUDEN, in (https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Dystopie#bedeutungen).
#6'Simon': "Utopie und Dystopie – Was ist das?-Was bedeutet Dystopie?"(21.05.2019), in Schultrainer, in (https://www.schultrainer.de/lernen-und-wissen/fremdsprachen/utopie-und-dystopie-was-ist-das/).
#7 [Book Review of David Brin: "The Transparent Society", Addison-Wesley, 1998, ISBN 0-201-32802-X], in (http://www.techsoc.com/trnspsoc.htm).
#8 [ ]: "PHILOSOPHIE IM FILM-KLASSIKER „MATRIX“: WAS IST WIRKLICHKEIT?“, 31.08.2019, in (https://www.sinndeslebens24.de/philosophie-im-film-klassiker-matrix-was-ist-wirklichkeit).
#9 Nick Bostrom: Are you living in a computer simulation? In: Philosophical Quarterly. Vol. 53, No. 211, 2003, in (https://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html).
#10 Winsberg, Eric, "Computer Simulations in Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/simulations-science/>.
#11 Recode: „Is life a video game? | Elon Musk | Code Conference 2016“, 02.06.2016, in (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KK_kzrJPS8).

2026-04-26T20:33:39Z

JDíaz:

Draft talk:Deleuze's "Control society"/Suggested improvements

2026-04-26T20:31:38Z

JDíaz: JDíaz moved page Draft talk:Deleuze's "Control society"/Suggested improvements to Draft talk:Control society/Suggested improvements

#REDIRECT [[Draft talk:Control society/Suggested improvements]]

Draft talk:Control society/Suggested improvements

2026-04-26T20:31:38Z

JDíaz: JDíaz moved page Draft talk:Deleuze's "Control society"/Suggested improvements to Draft talk:Control society/Suggested improvements

{{Improvements}}
*'''Conceptual precision''': Clearly define key concepts (e.g., cyberutopia, cyberdystopia, information society) and link it to the definitions that can be found within glossaLAB collections. Avoid vague generalizations.
*'''Argumentative coherence''': Clearly state and maintain a central thesis; ensure examples support the main argument.
*'''Linking to glossaLAB content''': Connect the contribution to related entries (e.g., cyberutopia, control society, AI) and integrate it within the platform’s conceptual framework.
*'''Clarity and readability''': Improve sentence structure and paragraph organization; avoid repetition and overly long or informal phrasing.
*'''Structure and organization''': Provide a clear structure (introduction, analysis, conclusion) with a coherent argumentative flow.
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Draft:Deleuze's "Control society"

2026-04-26T20:31:38Z

JDíaz: JDíaz moved page Draft:Deleuze's "Control society" to Draft:Control society

#REDIRECT [[Draft:Control society]]

Draft:Control society

2026-04-26T20:31:37Z

JDíaz: JDíaz moved page Draft:Deleuze's "Control society" to Draft:Control society

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'''Control society''' is a concept developed by the French philosopher '''Gilles Deleuze''' in 1990 through which the author intends to analyse esential aspects of our societies in the information age. Foucault's concept of the '''disciplinary society''' on which Deleuze's "control society" is based and a few contemporary examples are also described.

== Background: Deleuze, Foucault and the disciplinary society ==
==== Deleuze ====
Gilles Deleuze was a well-known French philosopher who was born in Paris in 1925 and committed suicide in 1995 by jumping out of a window after a long period of lung disease. His texts are relatively abstract with a rather anarchistic way of thinking. He was sympathetic to the 1968 movement and taught at the reform university Paris 8, but he was not a classic political activist. He wrote a lot about other philosophers and reinterpreted them, but also about topics such as psychoanalysis or cinema.

==== Postscript on control societies ====
In his essay “Postscript on the control society” (1990), Deleuze writes about how capitalism and social structures have changed in the second half of the 20th century. He refers to Michael Foucault's concept of the “disciplinary society” and develops it further. The disciplinary society can be seen in institutions such as schools, factories and, above all, prisons. Deleuze sees these institutions in crisis after the Second World War: “we no longer belonged to disciplinary societies, we were about to leave them”. The disciplinary society is turning into the control society: a form of society with a seemingly liberal appearance.

==== Foucault ====
Michel Foucault (1926 - 1984) was another famous French philosopher of the 20th century.<ref>''Michel Foucault (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)''. (2022, August 5). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/</ref> Among other things, he criticized classical philosophy and humanists (such as Plato, Kant, Freud) for presenting their thoughts as timeless, universal truths. In reality, however, they turned out in retrospect to be influenced by the ideas, language and norms of the society of the time. He was not only ineterested in typical philosophical questions but also writes about homosexuality, violence and madness.

==== Surveillance and Punishment ====
In his book Surveillance and Punishment (1975), he describes the change in society after the French Revolution in terms of how criminals are punished and treated. Instead of analyzing the basic principles of a state by looking at the constitution or important political speeches, Foucault prefers to look at how criminals and prisoners are dealt with in practice:

He contrasts two methods of punishment: Robert-Francois Damiens attempted to assassinate the king in France in 1757. As punishment, he was publicly placed on a stage, then had skin torn from his body with rakes, his wounds filled with molten lead and then quartered. In this way, the king showed his power and ensured retribution. Foucault compares this to a prison 80 years later, after the French Revolution: the prisoners are locked up in a prison and there is a schedule to work and pray, mealtimes, times to wash their hands an face. The desire is not only to punish, but also to educate the criminal to become a better person. The prison is thus symbolic of an entire era: the transition from a “sovereignty society” to a “disciplinary society”. Why did this change develop in this way? For Foucault, not out of humanity, but: “to punish less, perhaps, but to punish better”

==== Panopticon ====
Another example Foucault gives of how modern disciplinary societies function is the panopticon: an ideal prison designed in the 18th century by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Here, too, the aim was not only to punish the prisoners, but also to control and change their behavior through constant surveillance.

This works according to the following principle: an observation tower stands in the middle of a round building, with the cells around it. The guards can look out through slits without being seen themselves. For the inmates, this means that they never know whether they are being watched or not and therefore always behave in accordance with the rules.

==== Presidio Modelo ====
A concrete realization of this was the “Presidio Modelo” in Cuba, which was built in the 1930s under the dictator Gerardo Machado. Each building housed 465 cells for 1000 prisoners. There were no doors and every prisoner could be seen by everyone else; there was no privacy. Talking was forbidden in the canteen and a moat with crocodiles was built around the building to prevent escapes.

Fidel Castro also spent two years there before later sending political opponents to this place himself. After several hunger strikes and uprisings, the prison was finally closed and now serves as a museum.<ref>Science Channel. (2024, May 27). ''Cuba’s Abandoned Panopticon Prison | Mysteries of the Abandoned | Science Channel'' [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h9Iy40bJ</ref>

==== Disciplinary society ====
The panopticon symbolizes the typical exercise of power in a disciplinary society: primarily through observation and control. The aim is not to punish, but to educate and change behavior. To this end, the individual is first analyzed like a broken machine and then repaired. The control extends into the psyche: we begin to take an interest in the thoughts, motives and feelings of the offenders.

These mechanisms do not only affect offenders. They also have an effect at school, at work or in the family. For example, through school tests or in discussions about health in the workplace, often with the aim of maintaining performance.

== The control society ==
In his essay “postscript on the societies of control” (1990), Deleuze writes about the change from the industrial age of the 19th century to the [[Draft:Information society (preliminary)|information age]]: the “disciplinary society” becomes a “control society”.<ref>Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the Societies of Control. ''October'', ''59'', 3–7. <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/7788280</nowiki>)</ref><ref>Lars Dreiucker Interviews. (2017, April 12). ''Lars Dreiucker Interviews, Joseph Vogl, 1.04.2017, Deleuze. Post scriptum, Wiederholung/ Revolution.'' [Video]. YouTube. <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QddENsLFlI</nowiki></ref><ref>PlasticPills. (2020, July 23). ''Deleuze - Control Societies & Cybernetic Posthumanism'' [Video]. YouTube. <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4Cq_-bLlY</nowiki></ref>
==== From the factory to the company ====
Deleuze describes the social changes after the world war using various examples: “These are very small examples, but ones that will allow for better understanding of what is meant by the crisis of the institutions, which is to say, the progressive and dispersed installation of a new system of domination.” There has been a major change in the world of work: most people no longer work in factories, but in modern companies. By companies, Deluze primarily means service companies such as banks, software companies and consultancies, as opposed to companies that manufacture a real product in a factory.

Typical of work in a company is a certain instability (for example in the form of fixed-term contracts or changing projects) and the associated much higher wage differences between employees than in the past. Work is more flexible and operates through rivalry, contests, and highly comic meetings and continuous training.“The corporation constantly presents the brashest rivalry as a healthy form of emulation”. Deluze compares the factory to a “body” in which the workforce is in equilibrium between the highest possible production and the lowest possible wage, but the corporation is more like a “gas”. The company likes everything that is “open”, ‘flexible’ and at the same time “competition-oriented”.

==== Control and access ====
The three types of society - sovereignty society, disciplinary society and control society - also differ in the typical way in which power is exercised:

In the sovereignty society, the king ruled by fear of punishment, including death and torture. In the disciplinary society, authorities ruled over the body oft he people through imprisonment and over their minds through education. Their position and schedule were constantly monitored and controlled (in school “stand up, sit down, in prison go into your cell, in favtory only a half hour break”). The ideal goal was self-discipline.

In the control society people are ruled by giving or denying access to information(for example a password). You can apparently move and think freely, but you cannot break the mechanism. A modern example would be a hate speech filter. You can write what you want, but some comments are filtered out and thus have no negative influence.

Deleuze does not define what exactly he means by “acess to information”. However, you can see from his examples that he is not just talking about access to data. Therefore, in this text I use the broad definition “[[Draft:information]] can be generally understood as what enables the selection of changes in a system, be the latter of physical, biological, cognitive, technical or social nature” (Díaz Nafría & Zimmermann, 2013, 2013a; Zimmermann & Díaz, 2012). With this definition, I will also write a bit about “selection of changes in the socio-economic system” and situations in which one is no longer instructed or punished to behave ‘right’, but no longer has the possibility to behave “wrong”.<ref>Díaz-Nafría, J.M. (2014). Ethics at the age of information. ''Systema'', ''2''(3), 43–52. Retrieved on 24/07/2025 from: https://bitrumcontributions.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/ethics-at-the-age-of-information-2/</ref>

==== Society and machines ====
For Deleuze, “Types of machines are easily matched with each type of society”. Not necessarily because technology determines all social changes, but because they are also an expression of the respective time and culture in which they were developed.

The world of the disciplinary society was one of factory workshops, steam engines and motors. It often thought in a language of thermodynamics and industry, of production and productivity, wear and tear and exhaustion, routine or even sabotage. The control society is the age of computers and electronics and we talk about information, data and noise, networks, transformations and security risks as a matter of course.

However, Deluze used the term “machine” not only for real technical machines, but defined it generally as a “system of interruptions”. For example, in computer science this could be a function with input, processing and output, or in a movie the cut between two different scenes. A school can also be understood as an “educational machine”: It takes in children as input, teaches them according to curricula, and releases them sorted by final grades and career options. Similarly, the legal system is a machine of law that examines cases in trials based on laws and issues verdicts.

Describing such institutions as technical systems may sound a little strange, but it is also done in control engineering (or cybernetics), for example. This is a discipline of engineering science that generally deals with the control of dynamic processes through external measures. Here, both technical systems (such as temperature control with a thermostat or the autopilot in an airplane) and some non-technical systems (such as corporate processes or the blood sugar level in the human body) are described using the same terms and equations. Just as the thermostat regulates the temperature, the control society regulates people's future options for action. This way of thinking can also be seen in management language with words from control technology such as process, feedback or targets.

==== A new kind of capitalism ====
Deleuze sees technological developments as a profound mutation of capitalism: “man is no longer the enclosed man, but the indebted man”

In the 19th century, capitalism is defined by property and the concentration of the means of production. Factories emerge as a milieu of enclosure. The capitalist can be the owner of several factories, but also of workers' homes or schools with a similar concept. The conquest of the market takes place through specialization, reduction of production costs and sometimes through colonization.

In the 1990s, the capitalist is no longer oriented towards production, but towards the product, services, trade and the assembly of individual parts. Production itself is outsourced to developing countries.

What has remained the same in capitalism, however, is the misery of the people, three quarters of humanity live in misery: too poor to be in debt and too numerous to be locked up. Control will be confronted with the explosion of slums and ghettos. (fortunately, the share of population living in poverty has been reduced a bit since then, especially in asia)

In his typical writing style Delueze also uses an anmial metaphor: the industrial economy is like an old monetary mole, the new one like a snake.

==== Resistance ====
Most of the essay reads like a dystopian social analysis. But Deleuze did not see the control society as a perfected form of regulation, like the surveillance world of Orwell's [[Draft:1984]]. Rather, the control society is a conceptual idea of the perfect way to govern people. In reality, control mechanisms often fail or even provoke resistance, like the Panopticon in Cuba. “There is no reason to fear or hope, only to look for new weapons”.

The dream of hackers and [[Draft:Crypto-anarchism|crypto anarchists]] of a truly free Internet without control is an alternative concept to the control society. However, the concrete implementation in the Tor Darknet, initially promoted by the us government and human rights organizations, quickly failed and today has little use behind criminal activities. It would also be interesting to see what Deleuze would have thought about open source software or Wikipedia, founded by American libertarians, where free access to information is a business model.

== Today's examples ==

==== Identity cards ====
Today, ID cards are so digitized that they are a central instrument for access control. It is no longer staff who check identity, but card readers that serve as the key to access. They are used for companies, banks and libraries, for example. Passports can also be read digitally, cameras support identification and enable people to enter and leave the country without being checked by the federal police.

When it comes to issuing visas, the interests of the government, companies and universities are intertwined. Changing entry regulations determine whether foreign students and employees are granted permission to stay. Refugees often have to wait for a decision on admission or rejection in a limbo of lengthy procedures. This is a mix of classic confinement in camps and a control system.

==== Corona ====
During the coronavirus era, there was also a mix of a disciplinary and control society. Attempts were made to contain the pandemic with lockdown discipline, and the population in many states accepted the lockdown. The states had issued different orders. Some, such as China, used state force to enforce them, while others, such as Sweden, left it up to each individual to act sensibly and responsibly. After the lockdown and falling infection rates, the disciplinary society turned into a control society. Vaccination cards and test certificates enabled access to social life. Health data could be stored in an app and people could be warned if a contact person developed symptoms. The vaccination card was also stored digitally and could be scanned in the same way as a passport when traveling abroad, for example. It has been shown that both forms of society can intermingle in our everyday lives.

==== Online companies ====
Many companies operate in parallel to their businesses or only via internet platforms. At Uber, for example, drivers are monitored and controlled in real time using GPS data. Their access to jobs depends on constantly updated customer ratings. Airbnb has a similar principle: hosts and guests move each other around. The visibility of the profile on the platform and booking figures are based on a rating algorithm. Customer cards are also used in traditional sectors such as bookshops, clothing and grocery stores to read customer data and can be used to create individual purchase incentives.

Access to the job market is also changing: applications are made via LinkedIn and application opportunities often depend on automatically generated scores. In crowdworking, jobs are assigned to millions of workers on online platforms like Fiverr. The workers are no longer traditional employees, but freelancers who are constantly competing for jobs.

== Critique and topicality ==
More than 30 years after Deleuze wrote his postscript on the control society, his thoughts are still relevant and can be found in many areas: Big Data, IT and advertising companies are among the most valuable companies in the world. We work from home as a matter of course and use online shopping with algorithm recommendations. The liberalization of the labour market continues, with the German government planning to replace the daily maximum work limit with a weekly one. There is probably also more awareness of problems, from data protection to fake news and filter bubbles, than in the 1980s.

But, like the disciplinary society before it, modern society has changed since Deleuzes. It has become more globalized and there are new problems: Climate change is more about Energy than Information. The factories are still there, they just moved from Paris to China.

It is perhaps also more difficult to find a good symbol for today's world, such as the factory for the dawn of capitalism or the public execution for the power of the king. Or, as Deleuze concludes his essay: “The coils of a serpent are even more complex than the burrows of a molehill.”

== References ==
<references />
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JDíaz: JDíaz moved page Draft:Orwell's "1984" to Draft:Orwell's ''1984''

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